1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to personal computers and more particularly to the implementation of adapter cards that can be used to connect to computers with different bus architectures with a single bus of a desired architecture.
2. Description of the Related Art
The IBM.RTM. personal computer family was established as a standard which has been adopted by thousands of computer companies. Following from the inception of the first personal computer which used the PC bus, the personal computer AT was subsequently introduced by IBM and used a slightly different architecture called the AT architecture. This architecture has been used in the IBM Personal Computer AT, the IBM Personal Computer model 25, and 30, and other IBM computers and the personal computers produced by many companies worldwide. The AT bus has been accepted as the ISA standard for personal computers. Subsequent to the introduction of the AT, architecture IBM introduced the microchannel architecture, or the Micro Channel Bus as it is normally called. This bus was used in the IBM PS/2.RTM. Models 50, 55, 60, 70, 80, 90, 95, among others and in computers made by other companies. Subsequent to the development architecture, advances were made in miniaturization of electronic circuits and memory such that it became possible to store tremendous amounts of data in a small format and the PCMCIA architecture was born. Other architectures have been developed such as the EISA architecture, the PCI Architecture and the VESA architecture. Different architectures have evolved in response to the evolution of computer microprocessor capabilities.
To provide flexibility in the design of accessory boards for different bus architecture it would be desirable if a single integrated circuit could accommodate any of these bus architectures so that for instance an Infrared communications adaptor could be constructed for an AT, MCA or PCMCIA bus using the same integrated circuit. This would reduce the need for the development for ICs for each bus.